Electronic tools for managing communication systems such as hierarchical telecommunication networks typically provide a network management map display. The map display allows operators or other personnel to “drill down” through layers of network maps so as to locate and manage network objects, which are associated with actual communication system components. Network object hierarchies can contain tens of thousands of network objects, representing such components as network elements, groups of network elements, line cards, and ports for instance. Each time that an operator wishes to view information for a particular network object, the operator must navigate back and forth through several layers of the map to reach the correct view of the network object, which can be time consuming. This becomes burdensome as the size of a communication system or hierarchy being managed grows.
An operator can leave a window displaying a desired network object open, and possibly minimized, while investigating a different network object. This allows the operator to return to a particular network object frequently by merely returning to the window containing the view of the network object. However, this can result in so many open windows or minimized icons being displayed simultaneously that the operator may have difficulty locating the window appropriate to the desired network object. Additionally, leaving windows open is only useful for as long as a current session is active, since all windows are normally closed when an operator ends a network management session, that is, logs out.
Status monitoring can present similar challenges for an operator. Operational status for a network object is normally displayed when a window for a particular object is opened by selecting the object in a network map display, rather than in the network map display itself. Operational status of an object may or not be indicated on a network map, depending on the layer of the map that the operator is currently viewing. An operator may leave open multiple windows so that they can view any change in the status of the objects contained in the windows. As noted above, multiple windows can make window management difficult for the operator, and the opening of each window is a task that must be repeated for each user session.
Although it may be possible to list operational status information for more than one object in one window, this type of window typically lists information for only one object type, and accordingly an operator may require multiple windows to monitor status information for more than one type of object. Object listings also provide a static view of information at the time a list is generated. Repeatedly listing object types to obtain current information can be very time consuming.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/829,252, entitled “BOOKMARKS USED FOR MAP NAVIGATION”, filed on Apr. 22, 2004, published on Oct. 27, 2005 with Publication No. 2005/0240874, and assigned to the Assignee of the present application, discloses bookmarks for a network management tool or other application used to manage or view network objects in a network object hierarchy. The invention disclosed in the co-pending application allows an operator to more easily navigate to frequently used network objects so that windows for such objects need not be kept open or minimized. The bookmarks themselves, however, do not provide a substantial amount of information associated with the bookmarked objects.
Thus, there remains a need for communication system management techniques that provide improved access to relevant information such as operational status information and/or other information.